As is known, on a factory floor of a food packaging plant, several specifically-aimed processes are generally performed, including incoming food and packaging material storage, food processing, food packaging, and package warehousing. With specific reference to pourable food products, food packaging is performed in Packaging Lines, each of which is an assembly of machines and equipments for the production and handling of packages, and includes a Filling Machine for the production of the packages, followed by one or more defined configurations of downstream Distribution Equipments such as, accumulators, straw applicators, film wrappers; and cardboard packers, connected to the Filling Machine via Conveyors, for the handling of the packages.
A typical example of this type of packages is the parallelepiped-shaped package for liquid or pourable food products known as Tetra Brik Aseptic®, which is made by folding and sealing a laminated web of packaging material.
The packaging material has a multilayer sheet structure substantially comprising one or more stiffening and strengthening base layers typically made of a fibrous material, e.g. paper, or mineral-filled polypropylene material, covered on both sides with a number of heat-seal plastic material layers, e.g. polyethylene film. In the case of aseptic packages for long-storage products, such as UHT milk, the packaging material also comprises a gas- and light-barrier material layer, e.g. aluminium foil or ethyl vinyl alcohol (EVOH) film, which is superimposed on a heat-seal plastic material layer, and is in turn covered with another heat-seal plastic material layer forming the inner face of the package eventually contacting the food product.
Packages of this sort are produced on fully automatic Filling Machines, wherein a continuous vertical tube is formed from the web-fed packaging material; which is sterilized by applying a chemical sterilizing agent such as a hydrogen peroxide solution, which, once sterilization is completed, is removed, e.g. evaporated by heating, from the surfaces of the packaging material; and the sterilized web is maintained in a closed, sterile environment, and is folded and sealed longitudinally to form the vertical tube. The tube is then filled downwards with the sterilized or sterile-processed pourable food product, and is fed along a vertical path to a forming station, where it is gripped along equally spaced cross sections by two pairs of jaws, which act cyclically and successively on the tube, and seal the packaging material of tube to form a continuous strip of pillow packs connected to one another by transverse sealing strips. Pillow packs are separated from one another by cutting the relative sealing strips, and are conveyed to a final folding station where they are folded mechanically into the finished, e.g. substantially parallelepiped-shaped, packages.
Alternatively, the packaging material may be cut into blanks, which are formed into packages on forming spindles, and the packages are filled with food product and sealed. One example of this type of package is the so-called “gable-top” package known as Tetra Rex®.
Existing, first-generation Packaging Lines generally have a decentralized control, poor or even no configuration flexibility, and different communication channels and automation solutions and hardware, and generally require customization of the line automation software in the Filling Machine and each Distribution Equipment.
Therefore, existing Packaging Line automation and control systems cannot provide the flexibility and functionality features required to satisfy the ever-increasing market demand for food safety and traceability, and for higher production versatility.
However, despite their age, many legacy automation and control systems continue to provide valuable functionality that warrants their upgrade, represent a huge capital investment that production management want to prolong.
An ever-increasing need is hence felt for a packaging plant automation evolution, in particular for new generation Packaging Lines featuring integrated solutions such as centralized and robust automation control, increased configuration flexibility, same communication channels and automation solutions and hardware, and no need for customization of the line automation software in the Filling Machines and Distribution Equipments.